Archive for 2010
OpenCamp 2010: Building a Media Business — 20 lessons learned
In Bidness, Media on August 30, 2010 at 3:36 pmI had a great time presenting at OpenCamp this weekend. It was an amazing crowd for a first outing, numbering more than 600 registrants. And from where I sat, everything went without a hitch.
Below is my preso. For some reason, SlideShare isn’t picking up my notes, so I have them placed below. It’s not ideal, as the list doesn’t sync with the slides as well. I hope to get the version with notes on SS ASAP. Read the rest of this entry »
Back to school with the digital natives
In Bidness, Media on August 26, 2010 at 2:49 pm
On Monday, I had the privilege of speaking to The Shorthorn (University of Texas – Arlington) newsroom and web staff as they kicked off the new school year.
Knowing how the kids are all digi-fied these days, I was at first surprised that I was asked to come talk to them about how to get more focused on their web presence. But, as I discovered, we may have erred in calling this generation “digital natives.” Instead, I might call them the “bridge generation.” For while their lives are imbued with technology in a way my parents will never understand, they have been raised in a world where the entrenched media business still operated on old-media models, even while experimenting in the New Media World.
While I was duly impressed with these students’ journalism chops and work ethic, I initially was surprised to find them, in some ways, to have more in common with the stereotypical ink-stained curmudgeons than with the bleeding edge digitalfolk. Then, on reflection, it made perfect sense: Read the rest of this entry »
Hyperlocal secrets
In Bidness, Media on August 26, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Sometimes I should learn to keep my big yap shut. The other day, in a fit of pique brought on by undeserved hype for the newest “hyperlocal” business du jour, I responded to a tweet from someone who should have known better raving about the product. My criticism was that this “hyperlocal” zip-code specific Twitter product was a load of junk. I knew so anecdotally by looking at my zip code’s results. After some further discussion with folks on Twitter, I generated the following analysis for the past month of this service, as relates to my metropolitan zip code: Read the rest of this entry »
UT Arlington Shorthorn presentation
In Bidness, Media on August 23, 2010 at 12:31 pmComing events (or making life easy for my stalkers*)
In Bidness, Media, me, Me, ME! on August 4, 2010 at 1:22 pmDespite the heat, the summer doldrums must be giving way, as I’m staring down a really busy spate of talks and appearances:
- On August 23, I’ll be giving a talk at UT-Arlington to help The Shorthorn kick off the school year.
- August 28th, I’ll be speaking at OpenCamp about lessons learned from the launch of Pegasus News.
- September 2, you can catch me at the TEDxSMU happy hour.
- September 11, I’ll be speaking on using social media in journalism for The Press Club of Dallas and AAJA Texas.
- Although not officially attending, I’ll probably make a cameo to have a cocktail my friends at the Kelsey Group for their Directional Media Strategies conference, since it is in my backyard.
- September 23-24, I’ll be on an advertising panel at the Community News Summit in Chicago.
- September 25th, I’ll be attending the Walter Hines Page High School Class of 1990 reunion. (More on that later.)
- October 16th, I’ll be attending TEDxSMU
- And, October 29th, I’ll be on a panel about entrepreneurial journalism and new business models at the Online News Association conference. (Excited, as this is my first ONA conference.)
* – Would-be burglars and harassers note that April will be home for most of that and my three big, toothy dogs will be home for all of it.
Current obsession: Serge Gainsbourg
In Music on June 21, 2010 at 12:48 pmIt’s rare these days that someone can dredge up an artist who isn’t brand-spanking new that I a.) don’t recognize and b.) love. Most recently, Top Gear turned me on to the criminally under-recognized (in the US) Seasick Steve, whom I love.
But I’ve found myself listening to an ungodly amount of Serge Gainsbourg ever since April turned me on to him during a recent outing on the boat. Gainsbourg’s music is odd, but oddly compelling. It’s not the sot of thing I’d want to listen to intently while driving, but it’s perfect background summer music. Yes, even in French.
Check him out:
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The dark side of Groupon
In Bidness, Media on June 21, 2010 at 12:27 pmI’ve only bought one Groupon, as a test before we launched our own direct commerce services. If you want to see their downside for the merchant, just follow the comment thread.
I wound up calling in for a refund, which I got, albeit in “Groupon-bucks.”
There are lots of anecdotes about these sorts of things happening. I found it interesting that it happened on the only one I’d bought.
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The (currently) lost opportunity with iAds
In Bidness, Free idea, Gadgets, Media on June 14, 2010 at 9:51 pm
150 Million (Source: Engadget)
So I imagine, like me, many of you are buying your new iPhones today or at least waiting with bated breath for the New World of the iOS 4.0.
Last week, I followed the WWDC keynote, and despite all the gadget and gizmo talk, there was one thing that stuck in my head. In fact, it haunted me as nothing has since I first wrote the business plan for Pegasus News in 2004:
150 million credit cards on file from people using iTunes and/or the App Store (and now the iBooks Store). 150 Million.
As Steve Jobs said, “We have 150 million accounts — we think it’s the biggest on the web. We’re number one.”
Interestingly, he then segued into a discussion of iAds, but there was no connection.
As someone who has been obsessed with transactional ad models for the better part of this decade, this presented both a tragedy and an opportunity. That night, after mulling the problem while floating in the pool with the pups, I toddled inside and fired off an email to sjobs@apple.com: Read the rest of this entry »
Song of the moment: “Summertime”
In Music on June 14, 2010 at 8:18 amFor me, Sam Cooke’s is the definitive version.
If this ain’t the American Dream, I don’t know what is:
“Your daddy’s rich, and your maw is good lookin’.”
I won’t go so far as to call Sam’s line reading malevolent, but it’s calculating and a bit cynical. I like that.
Song of the moment: “The Devil You Know”
In Memoir, Music, me, Me, ME! on May 6, 2010 at 9:38 pm
I bought a copy of this poster at the show and it now hangs in my home office.
Yeah, this is a re-post, albeit a different version — one that also requires me to use my old method of posting.
For those who’ve been napping, let me summarize: Todd Snider = my personal poet laureate. Named the blog after his song for several reasons.
I dredge it back up for a couple reasons: Mainly, I just discovered that in a clever-as-hell business move, Todd is now posting and selling mp3s and FLACs of every show he does for less than $10. Today I downloaded his show from The Granada back in January.
This version of “Devil” is slower than the speed-thrash original, meaning that a casual listener can actually hear the lyrics (and perhaps surmise my bad-neighborhood-populist-hopeful-doubter kinsip with the song). But thanks to backing band Great American Taxi, it retains the right energy.
I also mention it because, per an email from Todd’s site yesterday, he has a benefit single for his adopted hometown of Nashville. Dammned if I can find it anywhere on his site (or elsewhere for that matter).
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In which I enter the Brave New World of iPad computing
In Gadgets, Media on May 4, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Like a kid with a new toy
For the last couple months, I’ve taken great pride in pontificating that Apple had finally created a product in which I had zero interest. I sneered that the iPad was either a mere giant iPhone sans phone or a primary computer for digital idiots.
I am typing this entry on my new iPad, purchased Saturday and already my favorite gadget ever. I’ll explain the tremendous potential and impact it has, despite a couple serious-but-fixable flaws, but I suppose I should first explain why I changed my mind and made the purchase in the first place.
While I still partially chalk this up to a global conspiracy that makes me crave Apple products fortnightly, a lot of my change of heart came from reading reviewers who lauded the iPad’s use as a simple reader for Instapaper. I don’t like reading long articles on my computer at a desk, and despite my insistance that you could read just fine on a iPhone, I had literally hundreds of articles backlogged– primarily because the truth is that reading and constantly scrolling on a 3 x 4 inch screen sucks. Add the half-dozen Kindle books I’d bought thinking I read them on the iPhone or laptop to the resolution to blog more here, and I felt I had my rationale… Read the rest of this entry »
Song of the moment: “Disorder in the House”
In Music on May 4, 2010 at 9:58 am
Zevon and Springsteen
Somehow this song always seems to find me when I’m thinking a lot about a friend or friend’s family in serious condition. That’s appropriate, given that it’s a track off of Warren Zevon’s final album, produced while he was dying of cancer.
It’s got a celebratory, whistling in the dark, thumbing your nose at the reaper vibe that I just love. Listened to it on repeat all the way in to work this morning.
I like that it’s clearly a rehearsal take that they decided to keep rough edges and all. And you can smell the smoke coming off Bruce Springsteen‘s guitar. (That’s him on the solos.)
Programming note: I’ve been posting mp3s with the Yahoo embed player, but I’ve decided to use Grooveshark for any widely available tracks in the unlikely case an overzealous copyright holder ever becomes a regular reader. I don’t like the UI as much as the Yahoo player, but best to be safe, methinks.
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Song of the moment: “Hey Wow”
In Music on April 27, 2010 at 10:33 am
My radio hosting debut
In Media, me, Me, ME! on April 19, 2010 at 4:29 pmLast week, Winston Edmondson gave me a crack at guest-hosting the Innovation at Work Radio Show. I’m preserving the audio for infamy below.
Mike Orren guest-hosts the Innovation at Work Radio Show
In addition to Winston, of course, I owe big thanks to Chris Walters and Steven Thrasher who were there to talk about Dallas Startup Weekend — they made my job a lot easier.
I’m eager to try again. I think I did pretty well through the first two segments. I was tired and flagging a bit by the third, and it shows as I stumble to remember the name of the event, etc. But I pulled it back together by the end.
The toughest part was the timing going into commercial. I tended to run short for fear of getting cut off and wound up leaving lots of bumper music.
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The (surprisingly bright) future of local journalism
In Bidness, Media on April 17, 2010 at 10:24 amPreso I gave yesterday to the faculty of The Schieffer School of Journalism at TCU and a couple weeks ago to the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors:
Free product idea: Stadium seater
In Bidness, Free idea, PopCult on April 9, 2010 at 3:37 pmOccasionally I have an idea that I think is worthwile but that I have no clue how to execute. I’m going to start posting them here, free for the taking. All I ask is that you buy me a nice bottle of scotch if you strike it rich.
A couple weeks ago, I went to the Sweet-Sixteen / Elite Eight games in at Reliant Stadium in Houston to cheer on my beloved Blue Devils. It struck me that someone could create some value with a seat-swapper application.
I’m not talking about a marketplace for buying and selling tickets, but a mechanism to enable fans of a team to sit in closer proximity. In the Sweet Sixteen games you had people from four different teams more or less jumbled through the arena, save for a couple small sections for students. Then at the Elite Eight game, you had probably 40,000 Baylor fans with 5,000 Duke fans scattered across the arena.
I would have happily paid an additional fee to enable a seat shuffle such that I got seats roughly equivalent to what I had, pricewise, but in a cluster with other Duke folk.
Surely there is a way to programatically shuffle seats around while generally maintaining row and position. It’s a feature I think a lot of sports fans would pay for — and not unique to basketball playoffs. And it would make the stadium experience even better and more exciting. Read the rest of this entry »
See me; feel me (but don’t touch me– healing optional)
In Media, PopCult, me, Me, ME! on April 9, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Like the groundhog crawling out from his hole, I seem to be doing a lot more public speaking / appearances in the last couple months. And I’ve got a slew of stuff coming up in the next week:
Saturday night at 8:00, I’m the guest monologuist for Dallas Comedy House’s Megaphone Show. I’ll be telling some seedy stories from my bachelor days in Dallas and then the pros will be improvising scenes inspired by them. It’ll be a great time. I’m also improvising in the 10:00 PM Maestro show. Both shows are $10– get your tickets here. I’m beyond excited about this — I’ll guarantee a good time.
On Monday at 1 PM, I’ll be guest-hosting the Innovation at Work Radio Show on CNN AM 1190. I met host Winston Edmondson as a result of my Ignite Dallas speaking gig. We hit it off and he’s since become a PegNews content partner and had me on the show to talk about our launch. We’d batted around the idea of me occasionally guest-hosting and he’s giving me my first shot Monday. I’ll be chatting with the folks from Dallas Startup Weekend about this year’s event. Tune in or catch the stream online.
Monday at 5 PM, I’ll be appearing on a panel for The Media Club of North Texas with a handful of other local mediati from The Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, KERA and the like trying to hash out what the future looks like…
Song of the moment: Avett Brothers “Perfect Space”
In Music, PopCult on April 8, 2010 at 10:07 pmAvett Brothers: “The Perfect Space”
From their amazing 2009 disc I and Love and You .
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Improv resources
In Bidness, PopCult, me, Me, ME! on March 3, 2010 at 1:00 am
For those who saw my talk at Ignite Dallas, here are the resource links I promised:
I took my Level 1 Improv class at Dallas Comedy House and am now in their Level 2 class. I wrote about my experience on Pegasus News. The story also includes a listing of other good improv programs around town. There is also a nascent community site: DFW Improv Forum.
For more on using improv in business, see The Applied Improvisation Network or Second City Communications. There was a recent article about the rise of improv in the workplace on CareerBuilder.
Info on London’s Yes And Club, which would be a cool idea in Dallas too.
Improv books:
The Second City book is better than Truth in Comedy, despite the latter’s pedigree. The Improv Handbook is next on my reading list.
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For those who saw my talk at Ignite Dallas, here are the resource links I promised:
I took my Level 1 Improv class at Dallas Comedy House and am now in their Level 2 class. I wrote about my experience on Pegasus News. The story also includes a listing of other good improv programs around town. There is also a nascent community site: DFW Improv Forum.
For more on using improv in business, see The Applied Improvisation Network or Second City Communications. There was a recent article about the rise of improv in the workplace on CareerBuilder.
Info on London’s Yes And Club, which would be a cool idea in Dallas too.
Improv books:
The Second City book is better than Truth in Comedy, despite the latter’s pedigree. The Improv Handbook is next on my reading list.
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- Laughing Your Way to a Job (abcnews.go.com)
- Fifty Years of Second City (online.wsj.com)
- Second City Tops Off Anniversary Celebration With 24-Hours Of Sleep Deprivation (chicagoist.com)
- Men of the Second City 2010 calendars arrive (late we might add) (timeoutny.com)
The measurement mess
In Bidness, Media on January 24, 2010 at 10:54 am
It keeps getting smaller.
There’s a pissing match today among several InterWebs iconoclasts about Comscore‘s traffic counting methods and business models. Actually, to be more accurate, it’s a bunch of bitch-slapping about unrelated issues, but web traffic is the jumping-off point.
You can read it for yourself — be sure to follow the comment thread too, in which all the principals rebut. (Or, as one commenter deems it, “three poodles fighting over a piece of raw meat”).
But for me, the whole thing is sad because it reminds me of another “scandal” almost six years ago now. Several newspaper chains had been caught overstating their circulation. There was all sorts of hand-wringing over it, but in the midst of the mea culpas, I read one simple line in a column by Ed Wasserman that changed my way of thinking and in large part led me to create The Daily You as a major feature of Pegasus News:
“Still, there is an absurdity to the whole scam. Counting copies is a dopey way to gauge impact. The explosion of information channels necessarily means erosion of audience share held by dominant media. There is still nothing that can rivet the attention of a community the way its daily paper does.”
…
Song of the moment: “Cast Away Dreams”
In Bidness, Music, me, Me, ME! on January 6, 2010 at 8:27 am
Lindsey Buckingham
While working my way through the New Year’s week, I watched a lot of concerts I’d recorded on TV, including Lindsey Buckingham’s HDNET show at Bass Hall a couple of years ago. There was one tune that hadn’t made an impression on me at the time — nor in repeated listenings to the album version. But when I heard Lindsey’s preamble this time it struck a chord. Without the backstory, you might think the song a downer. But as Lindsey described it, it was about how when you have many dreams, they’re never all going to come to fruition. That’s something to deal with, but nothing to mourn — the burial of those dreams makes room for others. Sometimes you need to put “cast away dreams” to rest in a celebratory fashion, even by dancing upon them. That’s something I’ve been thinking about lately, especially as I’m contributing to some efforts to provide support and inspiration to entrepreneurs on the rougher side of the adventure. Not every mission is a success — and that’s a good thing to be celebrated. Let’s dance: Read the rest of this entry »